Panning, zooming and turning the view in Vectornation by Zaweba

Getting around the canvas quickly makes every other tool feel faster. Vectornation by Zaweba has three tools for it: the Hand for panning, the Magnifier for zooming and Turn view for rotating the canvas, plus touch gestures for screens that support them.

The Hand

Press H for the Hand and drag to slide the canvas around. Double-click the Hand and the view fits the artboard to the window, which is the quickest way back to the whole page after zooming in on a detail. You will often not need to choose the Hand at all, because holding Space while using another tool pans the view and letting go returns you to what you were doing.

The Magnifier

The Magnifier is on Z. Click to zoom in, Alt-click to zoom out. Drag a rectangle and the view zooms to fit that area, which is the most precise way to go straight to a small detail such as a corner point or a line of fine print. Double-click the Magnifier and the view goes to 100%.

That 100% view is more useful than it sounds. For work that will be seen on screen, such as icons, web graphics and interface pieces, it shows the artwork at the size people will see it, so you can judge whether a line is too thin or a gap too small. Combine it with pixel preview from the View menu for a fair idea of how exported images will look.

Turn view

Turn view, on Shift+H, rotates the canvas. It doesn't rotate the artwork, only your view of it, in the same way you would turn a sheet of paper on a desk to draw a curve comfortably. Hold Shift while turning and the view moves in steps of 15 degrees, which makes it easy to land on neat angles and get back to straight.

Turning helps with lettering, with long curves drawn with the pencil or brushes, and with any stroke your hand finds easier in one direction than another. It is also handy when you are working on artwork that will be seen at an angle, such as type along a path.

Touch screens

On touch screens, two fingers pinch to zoom, pan and turn. If you draw with a pen tablet display or a touch laptop, that means one hand can steer the view while the other draws. It suits sketching and inking work especially well, where stopping to reach for a tool or a key breaks the flow.

Habits that save time

Learn the double-clicks: Hand to fit the artboard, Magnifier for 100%. Zoom to an area with a Magnifier drag rather than clicking many times. Use Space to pan from any tool. When you turn the view to draw, turn it back before judging the composition, because a slanted page can make a straight layout look wrong. And save useful positions as saved views if you keep coming back to the same few details in a big drawing.

None of these tools changes your artwork, so there's no risk in experimenting with them. A few days of using the shortcuts on purpose and they stop being something you think about, which is exactly the point.